Some gorgeous floors shown above. I actually love all the floors in our home except the carpet in the bedrooms. That will some day be replaced with hardwood, but with all the other floors (hardwood, marble and ceramic tile) that needed to be installed, by my hubby, he wanted a break and had carpet installed. I guess the pattern and the veining on this marble combo would be my favorite. More so because it was one of those happy surprises that come from a goof. The was the first flooring we'd purchased and didn't think to buy extra. We knew better, just didn't do it. HoDe was out of the premixed mortar that hubby had used for other tiles he'd laid and was happy with, so I talked him into mixing his own. How hard could it be, right? Well we heard later that the type we chose is even a bit tough for the pros to always get right. Some of the tiles loosened and broke when walked on. We searched high and low for matching marble to no avail. Then I saw the darker tile at Lowe's and thought we should take some home and see if in our lighting they worked well together. Hubby wanted to just replace them all, but once we found a way to lay them out, after he carefully removed the original tiles, he loved it. Here it is.... Click Photo to Enlarge

Because I spent 30 years in a home with virtually no storage (no basement, a garage that was converted into an office) I became an expert at not keeping things. Bedrooms were my January project. Jan 1st, take all the hanging clothing in your closet and place a small kids hair rubber band on the neck of each hanger. Place everything that is in your drawers in baggies (Quart, 1 and 2 gallon size) or small boxes. Throughout the year as you use things they get placed in the drawer or washed and hung in the closet. I don't place anything back into a plastic bag/box and I remove the rubber bands from the hangers. The following January I collected everything that was not used in the past year and gave it or threw it away. Spring was my kitchen and pantry. Again I placed my gadgets in baggies. If they were used during the year they were taken out of the baggie and placed in a drawer. I date all of my frozen foods and everything in my pantry when it is purchased. When I housecleaned in the spring everything that was 12 months old or older was tossed. Bathrooms and tools were my summer project. Fall was office and paperwork. Used the same basic process except for paperwork, which is filed by year and kept in a banker box for 7 years. Like I said earlier, my husband had a tough time getting rid of things, so his things were placed in boxes for 12 months and stored until the next year and then given away. I was good with giving away anything not used in 12 months. He needed the reassurance of an additional year to make sure he didn't need something that he hadn't used in a year. I found that this process eliminated the need to make the decisions - will I use this, will I wear this. . . Didn't wear it in a year - not going to happen.

Appraisers use the four stages of neighborhood life to describe what happens with property development: Growth: A period during which there are gains in public favor and acceptance. Demand increases. Stability: A period of equilibrium without marked gains or losses. No real obvious change. Decline: A period of diminishing demand and acceptance. Renewal: A period of rejuvenation and rebirth of market demand. This may be a lot in an area with in demand older homes that are experiencing a renewal. The surrounding homes are nice, but not the latest design. If you really love the location, go ahead and build. But, it's going to be lost money. You will over build for the neighborhood cycle. As an appraiser, if I were appraising the new build, I can at least get you some additional valuation because of the upgraded condition. But, I'm going to have to use one of the neighborhood homes as a comparable due to location. The neighborhood comparables won't reflect your investment. Then, I would have to find similar new custom built homes as close as possible. It's an appraisal nightmare. Using the neighborhood homes will be required and it may drag your valuation down. Maybe there are some older homes that have been renovated or have new additions in the neighborhood. That would increase the valuation because it would support me being more flexible in my evaluation. From a financial standpoint, you would be more likely to get your money out of the property if you purchased one of the older homes and renovated. If there are other teardowns and new building in the area, you may be in the middle of a renewal phase. If you are the first, it can be a risky proposition.

We were rushing to complete moving out and moving into a new home when the Covid hit, which was quite stressful. We had already moved things for the previous two weeks and I had already started organizing some of the most important rooms such as the kitchen (not very large and with drawers that were not standard sizes for drawer separators, which made everything a bit of a headache). We moved in and realized we did not have a single thing in the fridge or freezer and not much in the pantry, so we had three large grocery runs hoping we would not catch the Covid that second week of March and we finished getting anything else we would need and running any errands by mid-March. Since then we have hardly left the house, except to pick up a prescription and when my husband had to work some shifts that could not be done at home. So the first order of business for me was to continue unpacking and getting the house settled in, learning how to order groceries and other things we needed online, trying to make the new house feel like a home. That took some time. It has been a little over three months but it does feel like home now. What I appreciate about it is that I took great care to try to make it organized from the beginning. It is not cluttered and what we have brought into the house and unpacked all has its place. Bit by bit we are still unpacking and settling in. In a new house we were able to focus on what was important to us to make a harmonious home. The most important things to me were to have the master bedroom be a soothing place where you could feel relaxed, no clutter, and the same for the master closet - it is a small one - but it is organized and stays that way. The bath is the same way. The second thing that was important was that the kitchen was organized so that cooking was simplified. We don’t have much counter space but all the drawers are organized by function and with a cooktop and wall oven finally I had an easy place to store pots and pans in large drawers below the cooktop. I had spent quite a bit of time trying to get the drawers organized and it was worth the time to do it. We have held off putting much on the walls and want to be deliberate in what we decide. The quarantine (I am extremely high-risk and will be quarantining for a long time) required us to put off some things we had wanted to do such as address changes to some of the ceiling lights and to fix up the back yard so that we could use it, so those will just have to wait. It is just so nice to be in a place that is not cluttered and is functional, with enough windows for a good amount of natural light, and comfortable. Every day I am so very thankful for that.